Thursday; what it most likely looked like today, as well as what happens next

Last night before turning in for bed I sent John a thinking of/praying for you text to his cell phone, as I knew he would be up before 5 am ferrying discovery participants to various transport yards so they could catch their buses to their various locations.  This is the day that John is too tired for words; between winding up 10 days of Orientation the evening before and having to get up so early...as he is not a morning person,  you can imagine the stretch this is for him.  But he does it well and faithfully every year!

After the last participants are sent off, John and the team leaders will have a quiet breakfast before they spend the day debriefing the Orientation they have just concluded.  They will spend all day looking through their notes and curriculum on day at a time, talking about what went well, what didn't go as well as hoped for, and writing out ideas to help improve things for next year.  Then after dinner they (well, at least John) will turn in early for a long nights sleep!

The next 2-3 days John will focus on resting and recharging, something our 50's bodies really need after 2 weeks of travel and leading a group of young people.   Often our Ghanaian co-leaders will return to whatever they were doing elsewhere while the discoverers are out in their projects; sometimes they will remain in Tamale and help out both us and at the GILLBT office.  John will spend the coming four weeks doing a number of things; planning and making arrangements for the team debrief, visiting friends and co-workers (many of whom help us each year with Discovery), dealing with as much of his regular Discovery office work as he can remotely (trips for next year need to be lined up now) and seeking to do all of this at a more relaxed pace so he will be refreshed and ready for the debrief marathon when it begins.

After John has had a chance to catch his breath, we should begin seeing more updates...including photos...of what is going on in Ghana.   Please pray for all of our participants; the next few days can be very difficult for some of our discoverers as they adjust to life and work in a new location, without the support of the whole team.